Darren Middleton is crowd sourcing for a global choir for his new song 'Lightning Halos'

BY Chrissie Vincent Publicity | 12-Sep-2016

Starting with a very honest and organic idea of getting a few extra voices on a new recording, Darren Middleton (ex Powderfinger songwriter/guitarist) posted on his Facebook page a short one take video from his studio requesting fans, budding singers or anyone interested in submitting their vocals for the chorus of his new track Lightning Halos. The response has been amazing and really took Middleton by complete surprise, the track has taken on a life of it's own with the possibility of this project being the first crowd sourcing campaign for a choir globally! @kitchenhead4 @dsmiddleton

Now two weeks into the campaign the video has over 78,000 views of the video and hundreds of submissions from people from all over the world! From a school choir in Oman, people around a campfire, many, many solo entries and entries from well known singers from around the world.

Lightning Halos, will be featured on an upcoming EP to be released in November. It's a hopeful song, acknowledging that everyone faces different troubles in life, sometimes feeling barely afloat, but it's important to stay strong, to get through. Music can positively affect people on many different levels, it's a tool to communicate and a remedy for suffering as much as it is a form of entertainment. It's a bridge between people worldwide and Middleton hopes to connect as many voices as possible, bridging cultures and promoting peace with this project.

Middleton says "Music has always been about people to me, the sharing and caring in our lives, both trouble and joy. I started this quite unsure of how it would turn out but as I listen to all the recordings sent in, I'm hearing so many different vulnerabilities and strengths in peoples voices, I'm completely blown away and humbled"

Lightning Halos

Drifting through waters of your dreams
Just waiting for you to pull me ashor
Barely afloat and yet it seems
Don't need anymore
Carried through wide open oceans
Pushed by the waves and their constant release
Hoping you would join me
Finding our peace finding our peace

Chorus

As we
Sail through wild days
Lightning halos
Taking on water
Trying to stay on
Dropped on a board
Im that wandering piece
Of the puzzle that
You call your heart.
Desperately trying to find my way
Back to the start
And the costumes have finally faded
Torn and discarded piled at our feet
We're standing there exposed
In all of our needs all of our needs...
Chorus...etc

'Ive had people sing into their phones, send multiple versions with harmonies, professional recordings, pairs of friends, classrooms of enthusiastic singers' said Middleton.

Just email your version of the chorus to Lightning Halos to darrenmiddletonproductions@gmail.com and
Darren will go through every one and put them all into the song.

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The Bogong Centre for Sound Culture offers its next instalment of their masterclass series The Art of Field Recording during the winter snow season in the Bogong High Plains. This five-day intensive masterclass is overseen by internationally acclaimed sound artists and recordists Douglas Quin [US] and Philip Samartzis [AU] The masterclass runs from July 1 to 5, 2019 at Howmans Gap, Victoria. #bogongsound @bogongsound #philipsamartzis #douglasquin #howmansgap

Madelynne Cornish is an audiovisual artist and curator. She documents the effects of climate on natural and constructed environments, and the dynamics informing remote communities. @bogongsound #bogongsound